Just Diagnosed - Freaking Out About Grade 3

Sorry you are going through this but you found the best place to be.  Write down all your questions and more for your Dr. and chances are they will answer most before you get a chance to ask hopefuly. Take someone with you to do this because you will be dealing with so much have them write everuthing down.  You will feel so much better like these wonderful ladies always say once the plan is in place.  Good luck hang in there. You will be okay .

Yep, lots of people have had Grade 3 cancer without it spreading to the nodes or elsewhere. My Grade 3 cancer did spread to one node, though. While you won't know if your MO recommends chemo for awhile, chemo is a very effective treatment for Grade 3 cancer because chemo attacks cells that are quickly replicating. I had five months of chemo before surgery (neoadjuvant), and it wiped out the active cancer in my breast and compromised node. Best wishes to you!

One very positive thing about grade 3 is that it responds very well to chemo. Oh, I just noticed Elaine posted this fact.

I was grade 3 and that was 6 years ago. I am doing fine.

I had grade 3, high ki67, and lymphovascular invasion (focal). (Another hospital later had me at grade 2, with a tiny difference in scores, so these grades aren't absolute.) I was also told I was HER2+ at first from biopsy but later turned out to be negative. All of these things had me highly anxious at the beginning.

Ultimately, after three opinions, I stayed at grade 3 but did not need chemo. Even with positive lymph nodes, not everyone needs chemo.

Most docs are now going by the Oncotype score, a test that gives risk of recurrence percentages based on assumed use of Tamoxifen (nowadays those of us over a certain age use a different kind of anti-hormonal medication).

My Oncotype score was very low and my MD's told me I was fortunate and was most likely going to do well. So I went from thinking I was a terrible case to being told, basically, that I was lucky.

I called the Oncotype company to ask how I could be grade 3 but have a low score and they told me 30% of grade 3's have low scores. So you have a chance at a lower score than you might think.

Your tumor's responsiveness to hormones (and therefore to anti-estrogen treatment) is very important- though even when triple negative, one of the posters here is still doing well. But overall, a highly positive estrogen (and progesterone) will mean a lower Oncotype.

Just read this on another thread from a post quite a while ago but wanted to share as it may help all of us

Another husband with a b/c wife passed along something to my husband that helped us immensely - "Don't go there until you get there." Meaning, deal with what you have going on now, and don't spend time worrying about things down the line that might never happen. It made so much sense to both of us, and we pretty much have adopted it as our mantra. Think of it this way - if the worst never happens, then you've thrown away hours of your life worried and stressed about something that never even happened. And if the worst does happen, deal with it then. If it's going to happen, worrying about it now won't prevent it, and all those precious hours spent worrying were hours you could have been spending with your wife and kids.

So glad to hear that you are doing well. I go in for my pathology report today so I then will no the grade of my tumor and stage. I am ready to get on with a treatment plan. I know it won't be easy, but here I go. How many weeks were you on AC + T?

Hi Susan, I was diagnosed with stage 3a, two lymph nodes under my right arm were affected. One node was 3.7cm and the other was smaller. I started chemo on July 1st. My oncologist can't feel the tumor under my arm anymore. I found that pretty amazing because you could totally feel it before. I just completed my 4th chemo of Andriamycin two days ago (did I spell that right- sorry I'm tired!) and have twelve more weeks of weekly chemo....... But thank God I'm done with the four big ones. The mammogram didn't pick up the cancer, I found the lump under my arm. So next step is genetic testing although I think I'll get the BMX since I'm triple negative 3a, no matter what. My point is, the chemo does seem to work well on stage 3 triple negative, as the other women have said. I've had a similar experience. Hugs to you all sisters!!!!!